Welcome to The Holy Land of Hoops

Just noticed the passing of Ken Howard in today's obits:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/24/arts/ ... -well&_r=0

So, for me, i date my full interest in college hoops back to 1977, the year i followed the Friars pretty closely, or as much as possible for as 9 year old. I definitely followed the NCAA's and watched at least most of the Marquette national final championship game victory. I was pretty much hooked.

At around the same time, (according to the article in 1978), my older brother and i used to watch The White Shadow, starring Ken Howard as a retired Chicago Bulls star who i think blew out his knee and retired, and then decided to coach high school hoops in a disadvantaged part of Los Angeles. He played Ken Reeves, and the show dealt with hoops but really it was about high school and teenager issues, and race, and poverty, drugs, education, opportunity, women, family, friendships, really everything.

Great show that i have looked for and not found on Netflix nor Amazon Prime.

Also today, i noticed the passing of Joe Garagiola, who was a fixture on out TV growing up, with his announcing of Saturday Games of the Week on NBC, his show Grandstand which i think was a pregame show, tons of playoffs and World Series games, countless stories, childhood with Yogi. My first playoffs i remember were 1973, Orioles-A's and Mets-Reds, i was 5, and i was hooked with the help of my brother, father and cousins. Felix Millan choking up on his bat, hot dog wrappers flying around Shea, jets flying over Shea so loud to the point where the announcers would stop talking, Pete Rose fighting Bud Harrelson, then winning Game 4, Seaver, Mays and other Mets pleading with the LF fans to stop throwing bottles at Rose in left. Talk about exciting!. I knew all the teams and divisions and by mid 74 could name the starting lineups of each team...

Anyway, i wanted to give a shout out to two guys who had a decent influence in my childhood.

Also, GO VILLANOVA...!!!!!

Ken Howard died last week at 72, after "an illness." I looke don the internet, but could not find more info. There were several highly complimentary posts on a chat board I follow for Amherst College, where he was a Senior, and the superstar actor, when I was a Freshman there. He was a humble and kind guy, which I remember mostly because I was a spear carrier in Macbeth that year, while he played ... yep Macbeth. He had many roles on Broadway and on TV over the years, and was the last president of SAG (Screen Actors Guild), in which role he engineered the merger of SAG into AFTA, thus effectively combining the two actors' unions.

For the younger set, Howard also played Ed Truck, Michael Scott's former boss on "The Office." Michael made everybody go through grief counseling when he died.

White Shadow on FS1
http://www.foxsports.com/presspass/late ... -marathon-

Thanks for the heads up mupanther. Fantastic.

I watched an episode of "The White Shadow" yesterday. The show held up pretty well.

I don't want to give up the plot line, but it guest starred Mike Warren (who in real life was an All-American at UCLA with Kareem. Warren got into acting and was very talented... he starred on Hill Street Blues in the 80's, but since then for some reason has only had bit parts here and there... one of the great mysteries of Hollywood is why his career didn't take off). Coach Reeves helped Warren out, and later got the girl (a real tomato).

When Coach Reeves refuses to file charges against a delinquent boy who forced a fight on him, the consequences include peer pressure and a sag in team morale. That was a great episode.! Pressure from the other teachers who gotten knife stab marks on them really. God, i forgot how good Ken Howard was on this show.